Base - The area marked by a flag and white circle. (Previously, the WoT Developers have placed a Christmas Tree instead of a flag for the holiday season.)

bbiab - Be Back In ABit.

BiA - The crew-skill Brothers in Arms

Binoflauge - The combination of a camo net and binoculars on the same tank.

Bounce - A shot that ricocheted off of or failed to penetrate another tank. This can be used in either perspective. (e.g. "I just bounced a Maus," meaning your shot bounced off or "That [tank] just bounced me" meaning that that tank bounced off of your armor.

Brawler - A tank that works best in close range combat. Generally these have good armor and a powerful, if not overly accurate gun. Unlike a Flanker (listed below), these tanks are generally not quick, but they can fight facing the front of an enemy just fine.

brb - Be Right Back.

Buff- To make a module, vehicle, or equipment stronger by changing its stats. It's done by programmers to re-balance anything they feel is underpowered and thus unbalanced (e.g. "Buff the PzKpfw 38 nA. It's too weak!).

Cannon of Death/Death Cannon - Often referred to a cannon that can do upwards of 750 average damage with standard AP rounds (not including Artillery e.g. T30 or Object 704 ).

Camper - A player who spends most part of the match sitting in one spot, passively waiting for enemies instead of actively taking part in the action. Mostly used with a negative sense (e.g. [username] is a camper! He's been sitting in that bush the whole match!!!). However, someone guarding the artillery would naturally be expected to "camp".

Campinovka - Nickname for the map titled 'Malinovka' due to the amount of camping which takes place on this map.

cap - To capture the enemy base (e.g. "Cap before they do" meaning capture the enemy base before they can capture yours. This is usually said towards the end of the battle.).

CC - Community Contributor

Creds - Credits, WoT's in-game monetary system.

Critical Hit, Crit - A shot that damaged a module or crew member in another tank (e.g. I got a critical/crit hit for no damage on that IS-7).

cya - See Ya!

def - To defend one's base. (e.g. Def the base guys!).

Derp Gun - A gun that causes a lot of damage with one shot, usually having a very long reload time and low penetration. Usually associated with short, High-caliber guns that load HE. Arty's guns are not considered derps (e.g. the 'derp gun' on the USSR tank KV-2).

DEV/DEVs - WoT developer/developers.

Ding - A shot that has ricocheted. See Bounce above.

Face Hugging - The tactic of placing the front of your hull against the front of the enemy's hull (e.g. Why do IS-7 drivers always face hug Mauses?).

Flanker - A tank that works best when used to attack enemy tanks from the sides and rear, preferably while they're already engaged with another member of your team (i.e. flanking tactics). They may also be referred to as a "flanking tank". Generally these tanks are fast, maneuverable, and fare poorly when engaging enemies from the front.

Gold Consumables - Consumables that can be purchased with in-game gold. Some are passive, and some need you to press the 4, 5, or 6 keys to activate.

Gold Round - A munition which can be purchased for in-game gold, such as HEAT or APCR. These munitions usually have better penetration or damage rates.
Grilled- A term used by players to describe a tank that have been ammo racked or destroyed by fire (e.g Our Comet got grilled by their M41!)

HUD - Heads up Display. Common term for the targeting reticle, range, reload and health status in middle of the screen. Can be toggled on and off with "V".

Hull Down - To keep your tank's hull below a hill or other obstacle to prevent shots hitting it (e.g. Hiding behind a fence on Malinovka in a T29).

Humping Brick - Getting very close to a brick building in order to avoid getting hit by artillery (e.g. Get into town and hump some brick!).

IMHO - In My Honest Opinion

IMO - In My Opinion

k - OK

Keeper - A tank that you enjoy so much that you keep in your garage rather than sell to progress to the next on the tech tree.

Keyboard Warriors- A term used to describe players who talk too much but didn't do anything in a battle.

Kill Stealer - Someone who deliberately shoots a tank that you have nearly destroyed and only need one more shot to finish, thus taking the credit for destroying it. Be careful of making the assumption though, as it is often difficult to differentiate between a Kill Stealer and someone who was just helping out.

kto - Polish for who, usually followed by "pl?" meaning "who here is pl?".

Lemming Train - When most (or all) of the tanks in one team simply follow other tanks in one direction, leaving other parts of map undefended. Doesn't count if the team communicates and intentionally plans for most to go one direction.

Mini Map - The small map in the lower right corner of your screen in battle. Size can be changed with the - or = keys on the keyboard (not the number pad) and toggled on and off with the "M" key.

MM - Match Maker - the system used for building teams in public matches. It is a sophisticated algorithm that follows a set of rules to select teams from the "wait" queue that are as evenly balanced as possible. Teams "matched" are dependant on the tanks in the "wait" queue and, while MM does its best, well balanced teams are not always possible. Players love to hate the MM. ("MM is on holiday" which usually means no arty in the game!).

Mod - A WoT in-game or forum moderator. Also means a visual or audio modification to one's game.

Nerf - To weaken an equipment, vehicle, or module by modifying its stats. It's done by programmers to rebalance anything they feel is too powerful and thus unbalanced (e.g. "Nerf the T29turret armor. It's too strong.").

nvm - N e v er M ind

o7 - Salute. Often used to greet friends and fellow clan members.

OP - Over Powered, too strong compared to other vehicles, usually of the same tier. (e.g. Maus is OP, give it less armor to balance)

Panzer - Short for PzKpfw (= German Panzerkampfwagen), followed by the designation, e.g. Panzer 3.

Peek-a-boo - The tactic of rounding a corner to take a shot at another tank and immediately reversing back to the cover of the corner while reloading.

Pen - The amount of penetration for a given gun or to penetrate a target.

Penetrate - To shoot at a target and have the shell penetrate the armor.

Pwn - To utterly destroy without effort. Its usage is generally supposed to have come from a typo of the word 'own'.

Pwned - To be utterly and effortlessly destroyed. (e.g. I just got pwned by that SU-26) or a victory cry by someone who has just effortlessly or resoundingly beaten an opponent. (e.g. ARTY PWNED!!!)

R2D2 - The mini turret on the front hull of the KV-5. This is perhaps one of the most infamous weakspots in the game.

Racked - Instant destruction of a tank when the ammunition rack is hit. (To "rack" an enemy is to destroy him with an ammo rack hit).

Rammer - A device that shortens the time it take to load a shell by 10%

Ramming - To crash into another tank and thus damage it.

Repos - Some SPG players use this to tell when they are repositioning. Occasionally, they will also use Rdy Once they've reached their destination and are ready to support the team again.

rgr - Roger

ROFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing

RTB - Returning to Base or Return to Base

Rush - (also see 'Suiscout') To charge either directly or indirectly at the enemy base, usually along one flank.

Rusher - A player who rushes to the enemy base, although the term is mostly used with a negative sense to designate a player who charges at the enemy carelessly, often resulting in the destruction of his/her vehicle.

Scout - A tank that actively endeavors to spot enemy vehicles (e.g. Go scout that position!). Usually a light or medium tank, although, sometimes a tank destroyer or heavy tank will do the job in a pinch.

Siema/Siemka/siemanko - Polish for howdy or hi, usually followed by PL meaning Howdy pl.

Skin - The texture on a tank. This word usually refers to a user-created texture. (e.g. I love the skin that so-and-so made.)

Sniper - A tank that works best when used to shoot at enemy tanks from maximum effective range, preferably with one or more friendly tanks in front of you. These friendly tanks benefit you both as spotters and as a means of keeping the enemy preoccupied enough that they'll need to shoot at them instead of at you. Generally these snipers have guns with very good accuracy, usually high damage, a high camouflage coefficient, and sometimes poor armor.

Spotter - A tank that spots enemy vehicles for artillery, TDs, and/or snipers, allowing them to fire beyond their own visual range. This may or may not be a deliberate act by the spotter (e.g. Artillery: Can't fire. No spotters!)

Steel Rain- A term used to describe a continuous bombardment of artillery shells.

Stock - A tank with starting equipment or a module that comes with the tank when it is purchased. Stock equipment can perform decent at best or it is bad (e.g. the stock Pz.Kpfw. IV has a difficult stock grind).

Suiscout or Suicide Scout - (also see 'Rusher') - A player (usually with a 'scout' tank) who rushes off to find the enemy as soon as the game counter starts. Usually rushes headlong, often to the enemy base, with no support and before arty can get set up and load. Ends in the rapid death of the scouting tank, many times within seconds of the game starting.....

Support Tank - A tank with weak armor, but at least a decent gun, that can best help by firing from the second line (i.e. from a position behind better-armored friendlies). Whether or not a tank should be considered a "support tank" may vary depending on the tier(s) of the enemies being faced. Unlike a sniper tank, a support tank will try to remain close to the front line, but not on the front line. Unlike a flanking tank, a support tank will not actively attempt to flank.

Tracked - A tank that has had one or both tracks destroyed (e.g. "Maus tracked). Short for "de-tracked".

Trolltraktor - A full platoon of Leichttraktors in an all Tier 1 battle speaks for itself.

Tumor - A non-usable turret on top of a tank's turret or casemate (e.g. The machine gun turret on the top of the T110E5). They normally are less armored than other areas on the tank.

Wallet Warrior - A player(s) using a premium tank - so called as they purchase their tanks as opposed to unlocking them. An essential part of the success of WoT too.

Wolfpack - A team of highly coordinated medium tanks. Made popular by the Type 59.

Directions

North - The top side on the in-game mini-map.

South - The bottom side on the in-game mini-map.

East - The right side on the in-game mini-map.

West - The left side on the in-game mini-map.

Features on certain maps also have nicknames that are used in giving directions:

Tank Alley - The road that passes at the base of the castle on the "8 line" of the map in Himmelsdorf.

The Do-nut - The rock in the middle of a circular area on the east side of the map Karelia.

Parts of a Tank

Every armored fighting vehicle consists of three main compartments: Driving compartment, fighting compartment and engine compartment. For a basic description, however, it is easier to divide the vehicles into hull and turret/superstructure, where hull contains driving and engine compartments and turret/superstructure contains fighting compartment.

Hull

Hull usually houses driving compartment (Driver or driver and assistant driver/radio operator) and engine compartment, plus of course part of the fighting compartment and ammunition storage.

Ammo Rack - Ammunition storage. The function is clear: To store and to protect ammunition. However many compromises have to be made with regards to the amount of ammunition, ease of access, etc. Thus the ammo rack is always a weak part of any tank.

Armor - Armor provides protection against the enemy fire. Armor usually has varying thicknesses and slopes and is usually divided into front armor (incl. Glacis), side armor (often split between upper and lower sections with different thicknesses/slopes) and rear armor.

Armor Skirts - Additional armor plates designed to protect weaker-protected parts of tanks, usually the sides of the hull. Introduced by German designers, primarily to protect against 14.5-mm antitank rifle projectiles and 76-mm HE shells, it was discovered that this additional armor is able, under proper conditions, to damage capped AP projectiles and to degrade the penetration of HEAT weapons (though at angles around 90°, it actually augmented the penetration in some cases).

Chassis - General term used for all parts of hull connected to engine/transmission/suspension. Often vehicles use the same chassis, even though they serve completely different purposes.

Drive Wheel - Part of the running gear of a tank, the drive wheel serves to propel the tracks, usually identifiable from the idler wheel by it's sprocketed design. Depending on the transmission set up it can either be in the front or rear of the tracks. Damage to it can immobilize a tank with relatively little damage compared to the middle portion of the track. If you want to de-track an enemy tank, you should aim for the drive or idler wheel rather than just any part of the track.

Engine - The core of the tank, providing power and source of devastating fires. In WWII, usually rear-mounted. Gasoline engines were considered more flammable than diesel engines, but when a shell hit the tank, the difference usually was not all that important.

Fuel Tank - Storage of the fuel for the engine. Always a source of trouble, as it stores highly flammable material. Usually located wherever there was enough free space. Some tanks also mounted external fuel tanks. Diesel fuel is somewhat harder to catch fire than gasoline, but in turn, is also harder to put. Damaged fuel tanks increase the risk of fire on subsequent hits.

Glacis Plate - Describes the sloped front-most section of the hull of a tank or other armored fighting vehicle. In a head-on-head armored engagement, the glacis is the largest and most obvious target available to an enemy gunner.

Idler Wheel - Part of the running gear of a tank, the idler wheel is usually identifiable from the drive wheel by the lack of sprockets. Depending on the transmission set up it can either be in the front or rear of the tracks. Damage to it can immobilize a tank with relatively little damage compared to the middle portion of the track. If you want to de-track an enemy tank, you should aim for the drive or idler wheel rather than just any part of the track.

Periscope - Periscopic devices were used to provide visibility with closed hatches without the need to have a vision slit in a tank's glacis/walls, thus removing said weak spots.

Sponson - Part of tank hull located above tracks. Often used to store ammunition, in some cases also to mount the tank's armament. This is most prominent on the M3 Lee, where the main tank's armament is sponson-mounted.

Suspension - Means of suppressing vehicle shaking with various bumps on the road. In WWII, spring suspension or torsion bar suspension were usually used, though many tanks used the Christie suspension (most prominently the BT series and T-34). Suspension limits how much weight the tank can carry.

Tracks - The secret of a tank's mobility over broken terrain. Tracks allow crossing difficult spots better than wheels by distributing the weight over a much larger surface area. They can also cross trenches, which was of great benefit in World War I.

Turret/Superstructure

The fighting compartment of a tank. It contains the vehicle's primary armament and usually is located in a distinct fixed superstructure or, in the case of tanks, in a rotating turret. Usually the crew of the fighting compartment includes the vehicle Commander, Gunner, and Loader. However, these functions can be combined.

Ammo Rack - Ammunition storage. The function is clear: To store and to protect ammunition. However many compromises have to be made with regards to the amount of ammunition, ease of access, etc. Thus the ammo rack is always a weak part of any tank. The Ready Ammo Rack, usually found in the turret, was in most tanks totally unprotected and thus very vulnerable.

Armor - Armor provides protection against the enemy fire. Armor usually has varying thicknesses and slopes and is usually divided into front armor (incl. Glacis), side armor (often split between upper and lower sections with different thicknesses/slopes) and rear armor. Turret armor is always more exposed than hull armor, especially if the vehicle is fighting from hull-down positions. With a rotating turret, there are even more compromises than with hull armor, as the weight of the armor influences the balance and turning ability of the turret. For example, this is the reason the PzKpfw IV ended the war with just 50mm of front turret armor.

Cupola - Additional small "turret" on top of the superstructure/tank turret, usually reserved for the Commander. It provides him with 360° vision. However, the downside is that cupolas usually present a rather vulnerable target and damaging it usually means incapacitation of the vehicle's Commander.

Gun - Main armament of AFV. For more detailed description see the Armament section. May mount a Muzzle Brake.

Mantlet - Moving part of armor, attached to the gun, protecting the gap in front armor through which the gun passes. Mantlets came in different sizes and shapes - and also functions. Mantlets usually partially overlap front armor, though in case of Tiger I, gun shield/mantlet is THE turret front armor, same as with Sherman (76). The second extreme is Sherman (75), where originally the narrow gun shield expanded to cover a weaker part of the front turret armor with an additional layer.

Turret Ring - Present only with rotating turrets, the turret ring covers a bearing/turret rotation mechanism. It's a vulnerable spot on most tanks, as armor is usually thinner than on the rest of the turret, with sensitive machinery/crew located direcly behind.

Armament

Autoloader - An automatic loading mechanism first used by the French, and exclusively used by French and USA tanks during the time period covered in the game. An autoloader eliminates the need for a crew member to server as a Loader. Tanks with an autoloader are capable of firing several shots in rapid succession, drawing rounds from a revolving drum that holds several rounds. These are not to be confused with an autocannon, as these fire single shots from full-size cannons. When the rounds in the drum are used up, the autoloader refills it. This can take some time, so taking shelter behind cover while reloading is recommended. Theoretically it should be possible to stop the autoloader and fire before the drum is fully refilled, if necessary, but this is not possible in the game. Some modern (not in game) autoloaders draw ammunition directly from the ammo rack, eliminating the drum from the process.

Autocannon - A lower caliber weapon capable of fully automatic fire (burst-fire in the game), but unlike machine guns, they fire shells instead of bullets. Used in early-war light tanks to give them an edge versus their (at the time) machine gun-armed opponents. However, autocannons rapidly fell behind in the shell-vs-armor race and quickly became used only by few specialized German reconnaissance vehicles. However, autocannon use vastly expanded in the region of anti-aircraft defense.
Typical examples: 20mm KwK 38, 20mm TNSh.

Gun - Generally a shot or shell-firing weapon using lower register (below 45°) for direct fire, most often falls into following categories:

Gun, Conical - Usually referred to as taper-bore or squeezebore gun, it was a special category of anti-tank guns designed to provide high penetration without the use of special (and expensive) materials such as tungsten carbide, as well as to remove range limitations of APCR projectiles. Taper-bore guns used barrel with changing diameter, from original caliber to significantly smaller one, thus reducing the cross-section and drag of the projectile to extend its effective range.

Howitzer - Artillery weapon, with short barrel and low muzzle velocity, usually using separate charges. It was designed for high-register firing (above 45°), and thus to fire over hills and other obstacles. Howitzers are relatively light and share carriages with smaller guns - for example the carriages for the US 155mm Field Gun and 8" Howitzer were the same.
Many countries thus used howitzers as a relatively simple way to increase tank firepower against soft targets, to be used as assault guns and close support tanks. Since such vehicles were of limited use against tanks, they were usually attached to tank units as support only, or concentrated in specialized units that weren't expected to encounter enemy tanks.
Typical examples: 105mm M4 Howitzer, 10.5cm Sturmhaubitze, 122mm M-30S.

KwK - Kampfwagen Kanone, German for Tank Gun.

PaK - Panzerabwehr Kanone, German for Anti-tank Gun.

StuH - SturmHaubitze, German for "Assault Howitzer", Close support gun created by mounting a howitzer in an armored vehicle.

StuK - SturmKanone, German for "Assault Gun", ie weapon specifically designed to be mounted in Sturmgeschütz.

Ammunition

AP - Armor Piercing, ammunition type dedicated to penetrating enemy armor and thus disabling a tank. Often used as blanket term covering all various kinetic energy full-bore projectiles, "classic" AP shot was made of solid metal with no filler nor composite structure, relying only on its mass to penetrate and do sufficient damage to the enemy tank. While most WWII countries used APHE, the United Kingdom preferred to use solid shot and while theoretically tests showed some difference in the internal damage of target tank, in real combat conditions it usually did not matter.

APCR - Armor Piercing, Composite, Rigid, basic subcaliber armor-piercing ammunition. APCR body consisted of a penetrator, with significantly smaller diameter than the bore, and of light metal casing around it, to fill up the bore. The light metal part was non-detachable. Lighter mass gave the projectile higher muzzle velocity and higher penetration, however the smaller sectional density given by the light weight, but full bore diameter, caused high drag resulting in APCR losing velocity rapidly. APCR was used by all major players in WWII.

HE - High Explosive, a generally used term for any shell whose primary damage mechanism comes from an explosion of its charge, as opposed to kinetic damage done by the mass of the shell. There are multiple kinds of HE projectile, the most often used is probably HE-Frag, which has a shell that fragments on impact, creating a hail of lethal shrapnel. A pure HE shell would have thin walls and would create very little fragmentation, relying on the blast to do the damage. Thus, HE shells were often designed against hardened positions, etc. However, practice showed that HE-Frag can be almost as effective as pure HE, while being more effective against soft targets, and as HE-Frag took over the role, it took over the designation as well.

HEAT - High Explosive, Anti-Tank, armor-piercing projectiles using hollow charge effect. Cup-shaped charge forms a thin jet of gases or of HEAT liner material, that travels at very high velocity. Contrary to kinetic energy AP, HEAT maintains the same penetration regardless of the shell velocity, so it was a popular choice for low-velocity guns and howitzers. However, WWII HEAT was often prone to failure and had usually short range. On the other hand it was cheap to produce - by the war's end, German tanks often carried a significant portion of their ammunition load in HEAT, replacing both AP and HE shells.

Pzgr - Panzergranate, German designation of kinetic energy (AP) projectiles. Usual designation for most frequently used shells was Pzgr.39 (APCBC) and Pzgr.40 (APCR).

Sprgr - Sprenggranate, German designation for HE shells.

Vehicle Shorthand

In battle there often isn't time to type full names. Many players don't know how to touch-type, for one thing, and battle doesn't allow much time to begin with.

1) It's very typical in battles for players to refer to specific vehicles in shorthand. This is often done by only listing the model number. For example, "212" instead of "Object 212". If you aren't sure, you can review the list of tanks in the battle on the side of the screen in detail by pressing the Tab key. Once you familiarize yourself with most of the tank names, you shouldn't have any problems. Shorthand may vary somewhat according to the tanks in the battle. For instance if there were VK 3001 (H)'s in the battle, but no VK 3001 (P)'s, a player may leave off the H and just say "3001". Some other examples:

2) Another common tendency, especially when talking to friendlies, is to only use the prefix. For example, if you're the only VK model on the team, players will most likely refer to you as "VK" instead of by your tank's model number. AMX, KV, and M4 are other common prefixes used.

3) Models that don't have numbers and have unique names are often shortened. Some examples:

5) Sometimes a player may simply not have time to even worry about identifying you specifically and say "VK" even though there are four VKs on your team. For example, "VK behind you!". Usually this is done because the player typing doesn't know your model number and doesn't have time to look. However, in most situations this should be avoided because in this example, it would confuse the other three VKs, possibly getting them killed as they look behind them for enemies that aren't there.

6) Lastly, there are a few nicknames that have carried over from real life or that players have come up with based on the general appearance of a certain vehicle. Some of these are:

Battleship - Nickname for the Maus due to its powerful gun, slow speed and great armor.